Let the final mechanics work commence……..

July 6, 2009toJuly 28, 2009

With the registration document now safely in our hands we can invest our time and resources into making the cinema road legal. Surprisingly only a handful of jobs need completing to make the cinema mechacically sound, such as fitting the gearstick properly and housing the ignition battery in a secure place. All of the more daunting jobs such as the brakes, engine work and electrics were done nearly 2 years ago. Even more surprising was that about 90% of the electrics (including the internal 240v system) worked perfectly the first ime we gave them a power supply! Long live Bedfords and all things ‘built to last’.

Registration number KJU 267E reclaimed at last!

V5 registration document cover

V5 registration document cover

For almost exactly a year now we’ve been carefully trying to jump through all the neccessary hoops in order to reclaim the original registration number KJU 267E issued to the mobile cinema in 1967, and today the crisp, new V5 dropped through the mail box.

The history behind the vehicle effectively ‘dissapearing’ is simple. In the past all vehicles were licenced through local authorities and in a transition to the centralised ‘DVLA’ some time in the seventies, our vehicle missed out on the re-registration process. The then owners – The Transport Trust, had the vehicle safely in storage where it was most likely presumed to spend the rest of its days, hence no need to update its road papers.

Vehicle details

Vehicle details

Without any written proof such as an old tax disc or M.O.T certificate, the mobile cinema was effectively out of existence when we purchased it in 2005. In this situation we  were advised to get a letter of provenance from each and every owner of the vehicle since new, along with an original photograph showing the registration number, accompanied by a current photograph and an inspection letter from a commercial mechanic.

Needless to say some of these tasks were easier than others but I’ll take this time to thank all of those involved with completing this process, as without any one of them we would never have reclaimed the number KJU 267E, which is such a fundamental part of a very important historic vehicle.